It's been a weird couple of weeks in the bowhunting world when it comes to Josh Bowmar! Rumor has it he purchased PSE a few weeks back. I haven't seen any hard evidence or statements on this, but have spoken with multiple people inside the "industry" who confirm that he did indeed purchase the company and is currently in the process of hiring/firing their target staff for 2023 and beyond. If this is true, it will be interesting to see what happens w/Dudley. From what I understand, those two fellas don't like each other all that much. Then the news comes out that Josh took a guilty plea in the charges brought against him for violations in Nebraska. He ended up pleading guilty to a conspiracy charge, which basically said he should have known the outfitter he was hunting with was doing things illegally, and that he was a part of those things. They did drop all of the poaching charges - so there are no violations for hunting or killing anything over bait, etc. He ended up with about 70K in fines and restitution and is banned for hunting in NE for one year. And they gave him back his bow and 4 mounts that they had confiscated. Although he forfeited a couple of other sets of antlers, which I do find odd. I'm not sure how I feel about this outcome. Considering I never got a full understanding of Josh's side of the story and I know prosecutors love to hammer down on "celebrities" even if it means trumping up a bunch of BS charges that ended up not sticking in the end. I have a feeling the truth is somewhere in the middle. He probably had an idea of what was going on, but was never caught being a party to it. Or at least he never successfully harvested an animal while doing something illegal. On top of all that it looks like he's suing the "Making Hunting Great Again" IG page for slander and libel now that the poaching charges were dropped. And the state of Iowa hit him with charges for "reckless use of fire or explosives" probably for burning down his neighbor's property and cabin. This dude seems to attract all sorts of bad attention...
Sounds like Josh Bowmar is long on ego and short on brains. Every industry has its villains, deserved or not.
Him and his wife appear to be the ultimate narcissistic couple. Some of these celebrity hunters just have to kill 170 inch plus deer every year, even if that means flirting with illegal hunting practices.
I don't follow or know who they are but the first thing I read on this thread was "rumor has it". I hate that phrase!
70k$ for conspiracy?!? And no actual baiting or illegal taking of animals?!? Hows this possible and he had to turn in a couple racks?! He paid to keep his name “clean” with a crap plea, everything about this seems shady, he cares more about his image and future then to take accountability for his actions. He is a ego maniac, ZERO chance he didn’t know that they were baiting and doing illegal stuff there. He’s been going there for YEARS. If indeed he did buy PSE you will be seeing a lot of people switching company’s, I wouldn’t stand behind anything that guy touches. Just another “celeb” hunter mucking it up.
If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck. This guy keeps coming up. I do get that he is under a microscope but that should be more reason for him to be 100% certain he is doing things legit.
Show up with the correct tags and do the hunt legally. And if you "fail" and don't kill 3, 200 inch bucks in 1 year, then just admit defeat.
Bowmar the more I watched him the more I at least personally know I’d never share a lease with the man, never do a consulting job for the man nor would I trust anyone I love to be close to the man. I could be completely off base but anyone that appears to not even have the word accountability in their vocabulary typically isn’t the type of human I’m a fan of.
I'm a bowhunter and gym rat so I was drawn into their videos when I first discovered them. I am a HUGE proponent of innocent until proven guilty so I don't pile on until court is finished. Even then I tend to not judge because I have things in my life that aren't perfect and I guess I need to address those first. So after that I will say (or ask) this - have you ever seen someone who just couldn't get out of their own way? Someone who just left a wake behind them everywhere they went? Sometimes you have crappy people that are just evil. Sometimes people don't mean any harm, may have good intentions and genuinely trying to do good but they just make weird decisions and cause more harm than good. On the flip side you have intentionally evil people that could fall in a barrel of S4!t and come out smelling like a rose. I can easily see DNR trying to be big shots and frame a "celebrity" and I can easily see someone doing something extremely minor once and get away with it and just keep pushing that envelope until things are much bigger. I have no way of judging which camp the Bowmars fall into nor is it high on my radar. I will continue watching one of their videos if it interests me and skipping if it doesn't. Time usually sorts out all questions. Certain people tend to always be the one "framed" or "wrongfully accused" etc. I guess we'll see how they move forward. I look at it this way - if YOU always seem to be accused or framed, maybe step back and see if it's your decisions. A really close friend of mine recently got divorced. He was in my wedding and my wife and I just celebrated our 26th anniversary two days ago. I was in his first wedding. Invited to an after justice of the peace deal reception for his second. My wife saw on Facebook where he eloped for #3. For #4 he and I had lunch and that's when I found out for the first time that him and #3 divorced and he married and divorced #4. I told him wife #1 cheated on him. Wife #2 had a touch of the crazy. After #3 and #4 maybe he needs to step back and see what's wrong on his part and to evaluate his selection process before #5.
100% agree with this - which was why we didn't post anything until the plea deal was signed and sealed. I actually hate posting anything like this, but it's also part of what Bowhunting.com does as a news outlet for bowhunting. It's tough to avoid these stories, even though they make me feel dirty just by being associated with them. Keep in mind at the time this all happened they weren't who they are today. Their following was much smaller and I don't think most people had them really on their radar yet. And 100+ other people got swept up along with them - all of whom either plead guilty or were found guilty and took their lumps. Same here. This won't stop me from watching an occasional video if I think it may be worth watching, or from putting a nose button on my bow. I like the product, regardless of who makes it. To me, it just seems like drama seems to follow them wherever they go. First, it was the bear spearing that put them on the map, then these charges, then the charges against him for allegedly burning down his neighbor's cabin, and then burning down his truck, and now suing an IG parody page for slander. It's just a revolving door of scandals and legal issues, which never makes a person look good. Also, I heard a rumor that the PSE deal may have fallen through.
Well you and I must think alike. I too have the nose button and I use their grip tape. I put Wilson tennis racket tape on one bow and it has lasted 5+ years and still going strong, but it's not grippy, very warm in cold weather or a few other things I look for. On another bow I bought some Lizard Skin (maybe baseball bat tape) and it comes with enough to do your bow three times. Well you need that much because I had to wrap it twice to make it thru one ASA season and Bowmar's grip tape has lasted without any deviations for over a year now and looks/feels brand new. So I'm not gonna cut off my nose to spite my face. After making that post above I read and discovered they were also being sued on their supplement side for misrepresenting protein content of their powder by up to 60%. So add that to your paragraph above with other things I was unaware of. I didn't know about the cabin or the slander. I saw him burn his truck but chalked it up to an accident. I'll still refrain from judging for the same reasons as before - I'm not perfect either - BUT I will admit when I'm dealing with certain people that always has a cloud over them I tend to feed them with a long handled spoon if you know what I mean. I also thought these charges were brought against them more recently. I didn't know it was before they were well known. I guess I gave them much more rope because I have a lot of respect for Levi Morgan (granted limited interaction) and figured he knew him much better than me and if he was in Bowmar's camp it gave him some cred in my book. Like I said, time always seems to heal and sort. Bottom line is I'm just trying to be honest and fair and give someone the same benefit as I would appreciate on my end. There comes a time though that I can't feasibly keep expecting grace if I don't change on my part and eventually my grace for others has a limit as well.
